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THE I^I^>5IMMEE 
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SOUTHERN- COLONIZATION 
C O M P >I ivj Y 



K^lNSyiS CITY 
INDI/1 N^P OUIS 



5-flINT P/IUL 



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Copyriglit 1910 by Southern Colonization Company. 

€ CI A 2/56750 



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issimmeeirairie 

ITS RELATION TO THE REVERSAL OF THE DIKECTIOH 
OF MICKATIOri AND THE FOOD SHORTAGE 




I 



T is perhaps fortunate for America — certainly 
it is fortunate for the present generation — 
that the development of the South has been 
held back so long. Had not the slave system, 
the Civil war, and the mistakes of reconstruc- 
tion discouraged immigration, investment 
and development, the South, with its mild cli- 
mate, its fertile soils and its abundance and 
variety of agricultural production, would have been so alluring 
that the subsequent settlement of the colder North would have 
been very difficult. But, as it was, the stream of settlement 
flowed North and West, with the result that that portion of our 
great republic in which nature is the sternest and the conditions 
of living the hardest, has become densely settled while the 
South still has vast areas of unsettled lands, and nat- 
ural resources that have been little more than touched. The Day of 
The prejudice born of habit has been so strong hereto- the South 
fore that half a million American citizens have migrated 
to Canada within the last fifteen years, and have in many in- 
stances paid more for land than they could have acquired good 
land for in the southern states. 

But now the times have changed. The South's time 
has come. The historic routes of migration have been 
changed and even reversed. The south-bound trains these 
days are filled with northern and western people going 




Public Sc'hool Building^, Kissinunee. 



South to buy land and make investments and till the soil. The 
1909 school census of Texas indicates that that state now has 
6,000,000 people, a gain of 2,500,000 in a decade. Northern peo- 
ple have been pouring into that imperial state at the rate of 200,- 
000 a year. And now the tide of immigration is revivifying the 
old South. On every side there are signs that since the southern 
white people are again in thorough mastery in their own home, 
there is about to set in for the Southland such an era of prosper- 
ity as no other section of America has ever experienced. This 

reign of prosperity has come with a rush and an enipha- 
I ne oouln sis that were not known in the West, because the West 
Is Ready was a new country. It was without capital, and it had 

everything to provide that goes to make up the economic 
basis of civilization. In the South, however, the main work, the 
foundations of prosperity, have been accomplished these many 
years. The railways are built, the steamship lines are there, 
great market towns exist, there is already a large population, 
commerce and finance are thoroughly organized. There is re- 
quired only the presence and activity of more people to utilize 
to their limit the business machines and organizations already 
at hand. It took the West three decades to get ready to get 
rich. The South is now ready to get rich, and there remains 
only the turning out of wealth, the minting of the gold as it 
were. In this last phase there is an abundant opportunity for 
men of the North. Having wrested wealth from the inhospita- 




Osceiila County Court House. Kissiniinee. 



ble North, they now have an opportunity, ready-made, to repeat 
their successes in the genial South. 

The farmers of the South have just put into their pockets 
the proceeds of a billion-dollar cotton crop. The southern 
lumbermen produced $440,000,000 worth of lumber in 1909, 
the southern mines produced $358,000,000; altogether the 
southern farms yielded up $2,550,000,000. The South has 
now invested in manufactures $2,214,000,000, and its national 
banks alone have individual deposits aggregating $700,000,000. 
With all this accumulated wealth there are untold latent re- 
sources waiting to be turned into consumable wealth. Only 
two-fifths of the tillable land of the South is now under the 
plow. 

Of all the old southern states, no other state has Plorida is in 
gotten so well started in the new era of development as j_J^g Van 
Florida. A number of circumstances have united to 
attract northern men and northern capital to this great state. 
In the first place, it was sparsely settled, it has even now 
only 750,000 people, though it is the second largest state east 
of the Mississippi River; in the second place its delightful 
climate has long made it a national resort and playground, 
and has thus given the state wide advertisement; in the third 
place, the large amount of railway building in recent years 
and its strategic location with respect to external and internal 
water transportation and its proximity to the Panama Canal 




Egg Plants, O'Bery Kancli. Kissimmee. 

have deeply impressed the northern investor. The State of 
Florida has all the advantages over the North that other south- 
ern states have and some that none of them have. Generally 
speaking, Florida can raise everything that is raised in the 
North and much that cannot be raised there. 



Success in 
Florida 



Clark Howell, the famous editor of the Atlanta 
Constitution, says: "The man does not live today who, 
if energetic, capable and honest, cannot make a suc- 
cess in the South, and there are more fortunes to be made 
here than in any other part of the continent." This is more 
true of the State of Florida than of any other southern state, 
for there, in addition to its superior advantages, the way has 
been blazed. The man who takes up life in Florida today needs 
make no experiment. The experimentation has been done by 
others — by people from the North. All he needs to do is to 
follow in their footsteps, do what they have done and profit 
by their example. Nature is so kind and so fruitful in Florida 
that it has been too easy to make a living there. In general, 
fortunes are made by those who have acquired invaluable 
training in making a living. It has been so easy to make a 
living in Florida that the natives in the rural districts, lack- 
ing stimulus, have not made fortunes. But the man reared 
under other conditions desires more than a mere living. He 
wants to Hxtrart tho utmost comfort and luxury and the 




Our Automobiles on the Prairie. 

highest possible standard of living from the favorable condi- 
tions provided by nature. Another thing that has held back 
the development of this fortunate state until recent times is 
the fact that most of the land opened up by railway and water 
transportation has been covered with timber, and the labor 
and expense necessary to prepare it for cultivation have been 
an impediment to rapid development of large areas. 



In central Florida there are great stretches of the j^^ Florida 
finest prairie in the world. These Florida prairies Prairies 
combine the ease of cultivation of the Northwestern 
prairie with an incomparable climate. Imagine the Red River 
Valley of the North with the climate of Florida! Iniagine the 
plains of Alberta with a climate that permits three or four crops 
a year from the same land! Consider the astounding develop- 
ment that has come to those northern prairies in recent years 
with their hard climate, their remoteness from the sea-board, 
their single crop a year, and then calculate what is coming to 
Florida with its favorable climate, its perpetual crops, its 
nearness to markets and its cheap water transportation to the 
great population centers of the South and East. And then, 
realize that land — prairie land, fertile land — can be bought on 
these southern plains for far less money than on the northern 
plains. 




On the Kissimmee at Turkey Hammock. 



Kissimmee '^^^ most extensive and best of the Florida 

The Beautiful P^'^iries is the great prairie of the Kissimmee Valley, 
commonly known as the Kissimmee Prairie, which lies 
ou either side of the Kissimmee River in Osceola, De Soto and 
Polk counties This prairie is clad in a rich growth of grass, 
green the year around, with here and there a clump of trees to 
give variety to the scene and with enough slope to give good 
drainage. Being remote from rapid and reliable transportation 
and being dependent on teams or slow river boats for freight- 
ing, there has hitherto been no incentive to capital to exploit 
this great valley. But now two railway extensions are to 
be pushed into it, and a complete transformation is at hand, 
from a great almost uninhabited prairie wilderness to a dis- 
trict of dense population and cultivation. Perceiving the flow 
of capital and population toward Florida, the organizers of the 
Southern Colonization Company — men with wide and varied 
experience in land development and colonization in Minnesota. 
North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan — 
went to Florida with a view to ascertaining whether there was 
in that great state an available tract of smooth prairie. What 
they wanted was the contour of the northern prairie land, with 
which they were familiar — land ready for the plow. Great was 
their satisfaction when their automobiles rolled out from the 
pine forest on the north onto the wide, green prairie of the Kis- 
simmee. Here was what they wanted — the land of the North, 




street in Kissimmee with Live Oaks. 

the climate of tlae South. Their next step was to take up the 
transportation problem. Having assured themselves that at 
least one railway would be built through the district as soon 
as it was needed, they purchased practically the whole prairie, 
odd and even sections, solid. 



Tills purchase of nearly 500,000 acres has been the A History- 
gi-eat commercial event of the year in Florida. The Making Event 
people there realize what it means to the development 
of tlie state to have a body of practical, northei-n men of long 
experience, get behind so large a tract. The purchase means 
that Florida will now have what it has never had before — the 
systematic marketing of an immense tract of first-class land by 
a high-grade company. There has been need of the handling of 
large tracts by a big company of reliability and standing. It is 
now possible for syndicates and local companies to buy tracts of 
any size, subdivide it among tliemselves or retail it, as they 
please. The 10-acre lot business is praiseworthy, but there was a 
demand for a company actively engaged in selling large i>ieces of 
its own land. Tliere are many different companies engaged in 
selling small lots, but the man who wanted to buy a quarter 
section, a section, or 5,000 to 10,000 acres did not know where 
to go. He had to go and hunt up the owners and then dicker. 
The Southern Colonization Company comes to siuli men. It is 
its business to find them. 



"*' j^w 






A laiileman — A "Hammock" In tlie Background. 

PC A trip to examine this beautiful prairie tract — 

r rom onow 

, \/ J from the cold North to the warm South, from snow to 

to Veraure 

verdure — is nothing less than a delightful outing. 

Leaving Chicago at night on one of the luxurious and com- 
fortable through trains, Jacksonville, the metropolis of Florida, 
is reached thirty-four hours later. It is worth while to spend 
a day in Jacksonville in order to get an understanding of the 
new commercial South. It is a city of fine hotels, towering 
office buildings; modern, well-stocked stores, and manifold 
business activities. However, within two hours after reach- 
ing Jacksonville, a comfortable train can be taken over the 
Atlantic Coast Line railway to Kissimmee, which will bring 
the traveler to the latter place by the middle of the afternoon. 
The train runs through the towering pine forests, the trees of 
which are everywhere tapped for turpentine, through orange 
and grape fruit groves, through neat, carefully tilled truck- 
gardens, by beautiful lakes; past cypress swamps and groves 
of live-oak, draped with Spanish moss; by pretty villages and 
lively cities, past the picturesque outside-chininey shacks of 
the natives, and comes to the beautiful little grove-embowered 
City of Kissimmee on the shores of the beautiful lake of 
Tohopekaliga. Our automobiles will be waiting to take the 
traveler for a drive around this little city of 4,000 and a tour 
of the surrounding country, giving him an opportunity to visit 
innumerable citrus groves and truck-farms. He will be amazed 




Lake Tohopekaliga. 

at the excellence of the roads, surfaced with marl and as 
smooth as asphalt. These Klssimmee people are great believers 
in good roads and are spending $1,500 to $1,800 a mile on 
their roads, roads over which one horse can pull an incredibly 
large load. Several thriving northern colonies are established 
near Kissimmee. At St. Cloud, ten miles east 2,000 people have 
settled within eighteen months. Every train brings its quota 
of permanent residents. 

After a comfortable night's rest the traveler finds By Auto to 
the automobile waiting for him again, and he is the Land 
off through the stately pine forest, southeast to Kis- 
simmee Prairie. The built roads soon end, but the natural 
roads are good, and the auto goes humming in and out through 
the trees, through which the glorious sunlight streams, light- 
ing up the openings and casting deep shadows across the road. 
Everywhere in the woods, which are almost entirely free from 
undergrowth, graze cattle and sheep, and now and then a graz- 
ing sow, half-wild, scurries across the trail with her squealing 
brood. Perhaps a glimpse may be caught of a herd of deer or 
now and then a wild turkey. Birds, some familiar, some strange, 
flit from tree to tree and startled rabbits dodge in and out of 
the clumps of scrub palmetto. Three hours after leaving 
Kissimmee the forest thins out and then ceases. 

There to the south lies the prairie, grass-clad and as 
uniform of surface as any prairie of the North or West I 




on llie Road to the Prairie. 

1 he F ar-F lung After the somber forest, the broad-stretching prai- 

Frairie rie flooded with sunlight, the grass swaying in the 

breezes, the fleecy clouds drifting lazily, a palm ■ham- 
mock" in the distance, great winged cranes and herons flapping 
lazily overhead, seems a very Elysium. A few miles back the 
settlers were burning or pulling out stumps, jerking great trees 
out of the ground, raking and burning to clear the land, but 
here, except for an occasional tuft of palmetto scrub, the land is 
ready for the plow. Back there in the forest it costs 525 to $5u 
an acre to clear the ground; here the work has been done by 
forest fires which centuries ago cleared the land, and since then 
annual prairie fires have kept out the timber. There are sev- 
eral varieties of wild grass on the prairie, which make excel- 
lent feed on the root when green and can be cured for hay. 
Wherever the ground is plowed and left to itself this grass 
springs up in remarkable luxuriance and abundance. It is 
worth $15 to $20 per ton as hay at the railway points. Here 
and there, giving a little touch of picturesqueness to the level 
prairie, are little clumps of palmetto shrub, standing from one 
to three feet high, and now and then a grove of palms. 



Seeing the Being now on this grand prairie, the chauffeur 

Great Prairie gives the machine full speed ahead; and with nothing 

but a trail for most of the way, the car rushes straight 

south at a speed of twenty miles on hour, arriving within an 



ii II ' '" 




cloud Water, Abundant Forage, Fat Cattle. 

hour at the Company's inspection camp in the heart of the 
prairie where good food and comfortable beds invite him to 
tarry and rest. Everywhere on the prairie are grazing cattle, 
cattle that never have any attention beyond branding, which 
usually consists of grotesque ear-clipping, and are made ready 
for the market at a cost of a dollar or two a head. Occasion- 
allv a drove of hogs may be seen wildly scampering for shelter. 



The rest of the day and, perhaps the next may be yj^^ Gamp in 
devoted to a more minute examination of the land, ^^ Prairie 
and possibly, to a swing through that portion of the 
prairie lying west of the Kissimmee River. At the ferry, the 
traveler may chance to meet the steamer Roseada, Capt. John- 
son, busily engaged in distributing and collecting" freight. 
Certainly during the day the landseeker will come to the home 
of Julian Montsdioca, at Turkey Hammock on the east bank of 
the Kissimmee River, who is superintendent for the Lee-Par- 
sons Cattle Company. Julian usually has fresh venison on 
hand, and blessed is the traveler who is invited to partake of a 
meal with him and his family. He has a splendid grove of 
oranges and grape fruit and verily believes that nowhere else 
is there such country as the Kissimmee Prairie. The tour of 
examination may take the land-seeker to the village of Bassen- 
ger in the southern part of the prairie. Here he will find 
oranges, grape fruit and gardens, though the distance from 




Sunrise on the Kissiinmee. 

markets has discouraged large plantations on fields. Having 
completed the inspection of the prairie, the tourist may return 
to Kissimmee by the same or another route. 



The Virgin Soil The soil of the prairie is generally a sandy loam, 
which can be easily broken and plowed, and even with- 
out humus or fertilizer will produce bountifully. Somewhat 
light colored beneath the surface, it soon becomes black again, 
and is underlaid with clay. Here and there, in the timber and on 
the prairies, are what are called hammocks. The word '"ham- 
mock" is supposed to be derived from the Indian, and is said to 
signify "where hard wood grows." These hammocks are usu- 
ally surrounded with a belt of hard wood, and sometimes there 
are sloughs or ponds around them. The top-soil in them is a 
little heavier than on the prairie proper. Along the lakes, riv- 
ers and sloughs another quality of soil, characterized by a large 
amount of decayed vegetable matter, is found. This sort of 
land, when properly drained, is especially adapted to truck- 
farming. 

At one time the Florida prairies were doubtless under wa- 
ter, and, to quote the words of the Florida Department of Agri- 
culture (Quarterly Bulletin, July, 1909), "approximate in char- 
acter, texture of soil and period and mode of formation to the 
swamp lands, differing only in being practically destitute of 




Fat Cattle in the Branding Corral. 

timber." The same bulletin describes the swamp lands as "un- 
questionably the most durable rich lands in the state." The 
prairie is simply land that was formerly swamp, but which, 
through some geological change, has been provided with nat- 
ural drainage. It has the richness of the swamp land without 
its drawbacks. The prairie soil throughout is mixed with "more 
or less clay, lime and organic matter." The lime is derived 
from the remains of myriad forms of marine life laid down 
through the geological ages. The soil is perfectly suited to the 
climate. In the moist climate of Florida a heavy clay top-soil 
would be practically worthless. The soil that nature has pro- 
vided is exactly suited to the environment. It is easily drained 
and yet it can easily be so handled as to retain moisture. It is 
friable and makes a perfect seed bed. 



All who live on the prairie testify to the excel- Mild, Equable 
lence of its climate. It never gets so hot in the sum- Climate 
mer as on the northern prairies and rarely, if ever, 
does the temperature get below the frost point in winter. 
The heat of the summer is tempered by balmy breezes. It is 
always comfortable in the shade, and the night almost 
invariably calls for warm covering for comfortable sleep. The 
husky, well-nourished, healthy looking people of the prairie 
attest the salubrity of the climate. The average elevation of 
the land is about 50 feet above the sea-level. According to the 




IN THE BEAUTIFUL ANE 



Tveward of a Day's Angling on tlie Kissininice. 
Young Grape Fruit Tree, O'Bery Farm, 52 Fruits. 
Shaker Colony "Pinery" — IS-tlj. Pineapple in Foreground. 
Graystone Hotel, Kissimniee. 

Pecan Tree in Foreground, Bananas to Riglit, Oranges to 
I.,eft, and Truck Between. 




FRUITFUL KISSIMMEE VALLEY 



6. Pine Forest Korlh of llie Prairie. 

7. Celery Plantation — ?2.000 the Acre. 
S. A Little Lake. 

9. Grape Hammock, Kissimmee River. 

10. A Critical Kxamination of the Prairie. 




Flowing Artesian Well, O'Bery Farm. 

report of the Commissioner of Agriculture of Florida for the 
year 1907, there was no killing frost during the whole year in 
this district; the highest temperature was 98, the lowest 40 
and the mean annual temperature 73.7. The rainfall was 
47.20 inches, the greatest monthly precipitation being 9.43 
inches in June and the least, .24 inches, in March. There were 
180 clear days, 141 partly cloudy days and 4 4 cloudy days. 

The State of Florida has a lower death rate than any 
other state in the Union. The climate favors an out-door life, 
which is always promotive of health. Notwithstanding the 
state's southern location, flies, mosquitoes and insects generally 
are not so numerous or bothersome as in the northern states. 



Perpetual ^^ *^'^ climate the careful, thoughtful farmer 

Harvest keeps his ground producing all the year around, taking 

off from one to four crops. Every month is a growing 
month. This enables the Florida farmer to "aim" his crops 
to mature at times when the market is barest of what he pro- 
duces. He may alternate crops with a view to proper rotation, 
or he may bring on the same kind of crops. He may plant 
Irish potatoes in the winter, and then when they are dug, plant 
sweet potatoes. Or he may plant Irish potatoes again in 
September and October and harvest them in December and 
January. In January the truck farms are green with lettuce 
and celery and other young crops. Strawberries come on in 




Kissimmee Truck Garden and Orchard. 



December and continue until March and April. Oranges may 
be gathered from November till June; grape fruit from Novem- 
ber till February; lemons in June and July; kumquats from 
December to February; plums in February; mulberries in 
March and April; bananas in April; dewberries and peaches in 
May, June and July; blueberries in June; watermelons and 
cantaloupes in June and July; grapes, figs and guavas in July, 
August, and September; Japanese persimmons in September 
and October. Among the crops not mentioned above are 
asparagus, egg plant, tomatoes, cucumbers, peanuts, onions, 
peppers, corn, Kaffir corn, oats, sugar cane, cassava, rice, 
velvet beans, peas, beets, squash, cow-peas, string beans, cauli- 
flower, pineapples, avocadas, pecans, and a number of grasses, 
native and imported. 

With all these fruits and crops at his disposal, 
many of which can be matured at any required time 
in the year, the Florida farmer has no trouble in keep- 
ing himself and his land busy. Of course, if he did not liber- 
ally resort to fertilizers his land could not stand such treat- 
ment. The up-to-date intensive farmer believes in using 
fertilizer in large quantities and making his land produce to the 
limit. If he were raising small or less valuable crops, he 
could not do this. As a rule, the fruit trees, even on the 
richest soil, require the application of a certain amount of fer- 
tilizer to get the best results. The fates have been kind to 



High Pressure 
Farming 




Florida, lor they have endowed it with immense phosphate 
beds, from which are dug an important component element of 
the fertilizers that are used to force her crops and reinforce 
her soil. Practically every sort of fruit or crop named above 
is or can be raised on the Kissimmee prairie. 



Returns per ^'^^ Kissimmee Prairie is chiefly in Osceola and 

y^cre ^^ Soto counties. The report of the State Commissioner 

of Agriculture for the year 1907-8 gives data for the 

following figures as to yield and value of the crops specified, 

in one or the other of the counties: 

Yield Value 

Product. Per Acre. Per Acre. 

Rice . 30 bushels $ -15.00 

Oats .. 40 bushels -10.00 

Sweet Putaloes 90 bushels 47.20 

Velvet Beans . . I'O bushels 37.00 

Millet - tons -10.00 

Native Hay 1 % tons 30.00 

Field Pea Hay 2 tons 36.00 

Field Peas 15 bushels 22.50 

Irish Potatoes 127 bushels 137.00 

Cantaloupes 80 crates 320.00 

Watermelons 125.00 

Grape Fruit 240 boxes 480.00 

Beets 200 crates 400.00 

Cantaloupes 125 crates 150.00 

Peppers... 100 crates 200.00 

Squash 100 crates 100.00 

Strawberries... ...2.000 quarts 280.00 

Pears ... 136- barrels 430.00 




Kissimmee Sugar Cane Plantation. 



The foregoing figures are actual averages made from the 
entire cultivated area of one or tlie other of the counties, wliich 
mil be greatly exceeded by tlie best farmers. For example, as 
high as 800 bushels of sweet potatoes and 400 bushels of Irish 
potatoes may be raised to an acre. 

As yet but little intensive farming has been done 
in the Kissimmee Valley, but speaking in a general 
way, the following figures for a few products give an 
idea of the returns from intensive farming: 

Value 
Per Acre 
S 954.00 
1,925.00 
514.00 
437.00 
331.00 



Product. 
Lettuce . . 
Celery .... 
Cucumbers ... 
English Peas . . 
Beans 

In consideriu 



Intensive 
Farming 



Approximate 

Cost Per Acre 

$150.00 

$200.00 to 500.00 

100.00 

200.00 

50.00 



crop yields and returns it should be 
remembered that from one to four crops can be raised on the 
same land eacli year. Field crops can follow vegetable crops, 
and two vegetable crops can be made each year. 

Oranges well cared for, should yield an average of $500 
per acre, but there are so many old, neglected groves, that 
the official statistics, which include every bearing tree, do not 
make a favorable showing. . Almost every farmer has a few 




Shandibfrger Banana Pluniaiion. 

orange trees, and usually the field-crop farmer does not pay much 
attention to trees. The corn statistics show a rather small yield 
to the acre, though 7 5 bushels may be raised, and it is worth 
$1.00 a bushel. But practically all the corn is now raised under 
slovenly methods, without cultivation or fertilization. 

Water Supply Throughout the Kissimmee Valley, good drinking 

and Drainage '^^'^tG'' ™^y t)e obtained by wells fifteen to thirty feet 
deep. Artesian wells strike good flows at from one 
hundred to five hundred feet. The fall of the prairie is suffi- 
cient for good drainage, and there is no place on it that a little 
ditching will not relieve of surplus water. On the other hand 
the nature of the soil and sub-soil is such that even in the 
dryest seasons sufficient moisture will be present for the growth 
and maturing of crops. The dense growth of heavy grass 
throughout the prairie shows that even untilled land retains an 
abundance of moisture at all times. 



Poult 



ry 



The climatic conditions in Florida are very favor- 
able to poultry raising. One northern settler who 
came to Florida five years ago now has 3,000 chickens and 
realizes $13,500 annually from eggs. 

Game and Fish The Kissimmee Prairie has many attractions for the 

man who loves outdoor sport. Its advantages for 

automobiles and outdoor games generally are obvious. In the 

hammocks and even on the open iorairies dppr rniail ;in.i wih] 



/ 



LlMitt 




U. S. Dredge "Kisslmmee." 

turkej' abound. Just east of the prairie is a tract of 104,000 
acres in whicli thie owner does not hunt or permit hunting by 
others. Here the wild turkey, deer and other game multiply 
and their overflow restocks the surrounding country. The 
lakes and rivers afford the best of fishing. It is but a short 
trip to either sea coast with their world-famous hotels and 
resorts. A visit to them is most exhilarating. In the winter 
season the wealth and beauty of America may there be seen. 
Train after train of solid Pullman coaches rolls down from 
the north, bringing health- and pleasure-seekers, fleeing from 
the wintry blasts of the north country. They may not find the 
fountain of eternal youth, searching for which four centuries 
ago hither came Ponce de Leon, but they do find a new lease of 
life and a new joy of living. 

Florida is now covered with a network of admir- TransDortation 
able railway systems. Kissimmee is on the main line 
of the Atlantic Coast Railway between Jacksonville and Tampa 
and enjoys a passenger service of three trains a day each way, 
and excellent miscellaneous and fruit-express service. The 
Kissimmee Prairie is at the present without a railway — and 
that is the sole reason that it has waited till now for develop- 
ment. Forty miles is not a great distance for an automobile, 
but it is too far for wagon transportation, and the service 
rendered by the river steamers has been too irregular and 
leisurely to provide the sort of transportation that is required 



23 




Scene in a Kissinimee Rice Field. 

for settlement and commerce. Now, however, a railway is 
assured, and by the time those who now purchase the land are 
ready to develop their selections railway service will be pro- 
vided. The coming of the railway, which is to be built south 
from St. Cloud junction, as shown on the accompanying map. 
will of itself double and treble the value and the price of this 
prairie land. Hence the present lack of transportation is for- 
tunate for the man who invests now. Another line of railway is 
to be built from Haines City southeast, and will afford access to 
that part of the prairie that lies west of the Kissimmee river. 
The right-of-way for this extension has already been obtained. 
The United States government is now making a survey of the 
Kissimmee River, and the government will soon spend $oOO,- 
000 improving the channel. So, in the future, the river will 
be used much more than now, especially for heavy time- 
freight. At present it is the means of transportation for prac- 
tically all of the supplies brought to the prairie and for all of 
its products that are shipped out. 



Fine Wagon Osct'ola County is planning to extend its splendid 

Roads system of wagon roads to the prairie. These roads are 

surfaced with a sort of marl, deposits of which are to 

be found at several places. When such a road is built from 

Kissimmee to the prairie, two hours will easily suffice for the 

trip in an automobile. 





Home of a New Settler. 



The Lee-Parsons Cattle Company has marketed a Qf-ggt Future 
thousands of head of fat cattle from the Kissimmee 
Prairie, and Mr. J. M. Lee, the active manager of the Com- 
pany, has had extensive experience in general farming and 
citrus fruit culture, his grove at Southport, near Kissimmee, 
being the largest orange grove in that part of the state. Mr. 
Lee does not hestiate to say that with transportation facilities 
the Kissimmee Prairie will have a great future. He is a great 
believer in diversified farming. "The man," he says, "who 
takes 160 acres of that prairie and handles it right will soon 
be on the high road to prosperity; Raising forage crops and 
feeding his cattle instead of leaving them to shift for them- 
selves, he can easily take care of fifty head. We don't claim 
that Florida is a corn state, but we have raised seventy-five 
bushels to the acre on our place, and with the right sort of 
cultivation, it should be easy to produce good corn crops every 
year. Then the Kissimmee Prairie farmer should keep some 
hogs, and some chickens. Add to his livestock and corn, hay 
and other forage crops, a few acres of oranges and grape fruit, 
and some truck farming, and you will have a combination that 
can never be beaten by any turn of the weather or the markets. 
The drainage problem is easily solved on this prairie, the land 
having a good fall; and water for domestic and irrigation pur- 
poses can be easily and inexpensively obtained. I haven't pre- 
tended to enumerate the products that may be raised on the 
prairie. I have just sketched some of its possibilities." 




Perfe<_t Orange Grovf Near Kissiinmee. 

"No Better ^^ Whittier, a little settlement two miles north 

Country in the °^ ^^^ prairie, there are many farmers, and they all 
World" agree that for oranges, grape fruit, pineapples, 

potatoes, vegetables of all sorts, corn, sugar cane, etc., 
there is no better country in the world. Mr. Williams, who 
conducts a store and is the Whittier postmaster, is especially 
enthusiastic over cane raising. He gets from ten to fifteen 
barrels of syrup from sugar cane and each barrel is worth at 
least $12. "We haven't done much in this country outside of 
cattle raising," he says, "but that is because we have had no 
market, being without a railway. But we have done enough 
to show that anything you would think of raising in Florida 
can be raised here with the greatest success. Our people are 
fond of taking it easy, but any man who has the ambition to 
make more than a living, can do it here with very little effort. 
The other kind can make a living without any effort. No man 
needs to starve in Florida. Most of us are content with plenty 
to eat and a shelter, but for the ambitious there are riches in 
store throughout the Kissimmee Valley. The climate is 
pleasant and healthy. I came here from Tennessee and I 
much prefer this climate to that of Tennessee." 

Ni/ii- _ At Bassenger near the southern edge of the prairie, 

o Killing . , . , , . , , 

ttr " there IS another considerable settlement, where the gar- 

r reeze 

dens and the groves bear ample testimony to the 

adaptation of the locality in soil and climatf '<> ].i;ui icnilv all 



20 




'^m- 



Tomatoes and Peaches — A Sweet Corn Crop Preceded Tomatoes. 



the crops of Florida. The people here, though largely occupied 
with cattle raising, do not hesitate to testify to the fertility 
of the soil and its great possibilities after the prairie is opened 
up by a railway. The same evidence is obtainable at the 
various settlements along the river, where there are orange 
groves and grape fruit plantations that were not affected by 
the great freeze of 1895, which was disastrous to most of 
Florida, thus proving that the Kissimmee Prairie is below the 
danger line. 

One of the finest small citrus groves in Florida 0»l, 
is that conducted by Julian IMontsdioca at Turkey 
Hammock, who uses almost no fertilizer on his trees. Mr. 
Montsdioca is a cattle-man, but he is enthusiastic about the 
agricultural possibilities of the Kissimmee Prairie. He has 
made some experiments with Para grass, and has found that 
it will produce three heavy crops a year, thus adding another 
hay crop to the prairie's resources. 

Another staunch believer in the Kissimmee Valley is 
Capt. Johnson, who operates the steamboat line on the river. 
He has been traveling up and down the river for years, and has 
transported almost everything that has come into or gone 
out of the prairie. He declares that a large part of the 
prairie is well adapted to sugar cane culture, and expects to 
see the day, when large amounts of sugar cane will be raised 
in this region. 



er Opinions 



27 




J'"isliing (111 lilt' Kissimmee. 

C. A. Carson, merchant and banker, of Kissimmee has 
been long familiar with the Kissimmee Valley. He is very 
sanguine concerning its development on diversified farming 
lines. "Let a man locate on that prairie," he says, "with 
anywhere from forty to a hundred and sixty acres, get cattle, 
hogs, sheep, poultry and raise forage crops, and nothing can 
stop his rapid progress toward wealth and prosperity." 



Prices and The men who make up the Southern Colonization 

Terms Company have been engaged for years in the important 

work of making large tracts of land available for settlement. 
In dozens of instances we have taken over large acreages from 
corporations or individuals who were merely holding them 
and have rapidly placed them in the hands of small coloniza- 
tion and retailing companies or have retailed them directly. 
We are content with a fair profit for our services, which are 
as necessary in land selling and settlement, as those of the 
wholesaler and jobber in merchandizing. We delight in open- 
ing up an unsettled district. That's the fun of our business. 
As in all our past enterprises of a similar nature, we plan to 
divide the fruits of this enterprise with those who co-operate 
with us. We purpose to retail and wholesale Kissimmee prairie 
lands at moderate prices and reasonable terms. These will be 
quoted on application. 




Hllllard Home Near Kissimmee. 



We are not resorting to the auction plan of sell- "peeing tne 



Seeing tht 
Land 



ing our land, and we are not donating town-lots. 
We sell to bona fide investors and settlers, and we want 
them to inspect the land before they buy. We are taking our 
patrons to Florida on the regular excursion days. We are well 
supplied with automobiles, have a comfortable camp on the 
land and are fully prepared to make the prospective buyer's 
trip comfortable and delightful in every respect We shall be 
glad to give full particulars as to railway rates, routes, etc., on 
application. We would suggest that, if you are interested, 
you should act at once. You might as well be among the first 
as among the last buyers, and judging by our past experience 
the interval between first and last will not be long. The 
largest and quickest profits are for the early buyers. 



An acre in Florida will produce as much as an Investment 
acre in the irrigated fruit districts of the West. Yet Points 
raw land in the favored Western valleys sells as high 
as $200 an acre and improved land — that is with orchards — at 
from $500 to $3,000. In Florida cultivation and fertilization 
take the place of irrigation in the West. The net profit from 
Florida acres is as great as the net profit from California, 
Washington or Oregon acres. Why then the difference in 
price? Simply because the Florida people do not know what 
they have. They haven't yet had the courage to price their 



lands at their intrinsic value. The time is near at hand when 
that will be done. The conclusion is obvious. 

The Prairie's The prairie has a great advantage over the rest 

Advantage of Florida in the fact that, not having to be expensively 
cleared, it is adapted to farms. The man who has to 
spend $50 an acre clearing his land is disposed to content him- 
self with a few acres and then make them produce to the 
limit. In other words, he raises fruit and garden-truck exclu- 
sively. ' But Florida lands produce great corn and forage 
crops, and where broad acres can be obtained there is great 
profit in diversified farming. On the Kissimmee Prairie a 
man can buy a quarter section for about what it would cost 
him to buy and clear twenty acres in the timber. He can have 
his truck fields and his orchards, and he can have hay and 
corn and other forage crops and cattle besides. He does not 
need to put all his eggs in one basket. Whatever happens to 
the market or to the crops, he is tolerably sure to play 
Oattle, nogs safe. The Kissimmee Prairie man with his cattle, his 
and oneep hogs, his sheep, his chickens, his hay and forage, his 
corn, his truck-gardens and his orange and grape-fruit 
groves is independent. Some men do not care to raise truck; 
they prefer to farm extensively. Most northern farmers have 
been trained along the lines of cattle-raising and field-farming. 
A farmer with such experience has a golden opportunity in 
Florida, for most of his fellow laborers are farming intensively. 
Florida does not pretend to be a corn state, but thirty to 
seventy-five bushels of corn can be raised to the acre — and it 
is worth $1.00 a bushel. If a farmer puts up more hay than his 
own stock can consume, he can sell it for $15 to $20 a ton. 
This last season a ranch on the Kissimmee River sold 500 bales 
of hay at $20 the ton. Of course, it is obvious that while the 
Kissimmee Prairie makes large farms practicable and profit- 
able, it is just as well adapted to the man who prefers to operate 
ten or twenty acres. 

Land and the Population is outrunning food production in the 

Food Crisis United States. The cost of food is becoming ruinously 
high. Leading economic authorities predict that the 
United States will soon cease to export food stuffs. The present 
era of high prices is simply a demonstration that there is too 
little production and too much consumption. We are really 
face to face with an economic crisis. To re-establish the 
equilibrium the number of farms must be greatly increased. The 
food boycott is not a permanent solution of the matter of high 
prices. The supply must be increased. To increase the supply, 
there must be more farmers and more farms. That means a 
great appreciation in the value of agricultural land. The 
more productive the land the greater the increase. Florida 



30 




Navel Oranges, Bryan Grove. 



land, now ridiculously cheap, with its ability to produce two to 
four crops a year and with its proximity to the great markets 
(1,000 miles from New York and Chicago as against 2,500 and 
3,500 for California) and excellent transportation facilities, rail 
and water, will increase in value more than any other agricultural 
land in America. In this booklet considerable space has been 
devoted to pointing out the advantages of the Kissimmee Prairie 
for stock raising. The present meat famine should lend special 
emphasis to what has been said in that regard. The Florida 
prairies are today the largest stock ranges in America east of 
the Mississippi River, and in view of their ever-greeness and 
freedom from destructive storms and droughts are probably the 
best grazing land on the continent. 

A few words should be written here regarding the The Men of 
personnel of the Southern Colonization Company. It the Company 
is composed entirely of men of high standing in the 
business world. All of those concerned with the active 
management are men of long experience in the buying 
and vending of land or in colonization and the promotion 
of immigration. They have operated for many years 
in the lands of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and 
Western Canada. They have never handled any but good 
lands, and they have always acted on the theory that the 
legitimate land business is one which is* of the highest 
importance to the agricultural development and population of 



America, and that a sale of good land is a transaction alike 
profitable to buyer and seller. In the space of fifteen years 
they have bought and sold several millions of acres of land. 
Mr. Frederick B. Lynch, the president of the company, has been 
actively interested in the purchase and sale of many large tracts 
of land in Minnesota and Canada. The companies in which he 
has been active have been among the most successful of the 
large northwestern land companies — companies with which 
many who read this book are familiar. The others actively con- 
nected with the management of the company — Mr. Nicoll 
Halsey, vice-president; Mr. Albert J. Nason, treasurer; Mr. 
Theodore M. Knappen, secretary — have long been associated 
with Mr. Lynch, and are thoroughly familiar with the land 
business. 

In Review 

In the foregoing, we have tried in a conser\'ative fashion 
to give the reader some conception of the exceptional advan- 
tages of the Kissimniee Prairie under our development plans. 
At the risk of repetition, we would recapitulate those advan- 
tages as follows: 

First^ — Clear prairie. That means no e.xpensive clearing. 

Second — A fertile soil, easily cultivat«d. 

Third — Adaptability to practically every crop that can be 
raised in Florida. 

Fourtli — Tlie best all-the-year-round climat* in America 
for comfort and Iiealth. 

Fifth — Ownership of a large tract — 500,000 acres — by a 
company of great financial strength and respon.sibility, thus 
I>erniitting the purchaser to buy in any-size block ejisily and 
with confKh'nce in titles and transactions. 

Sixtli — I'lices so low, and terms so reasonable tliat large 
profits are assured to the purcluiser utterly i-egardless of the 
use or non-use of the land by him 

We can say no more here. We would like to luive you do 
the rest of the talking. If you will join one of our excursions, 
and see the land for youi"self, we are sure you will tax your 
vocabulary to its limits in your efforts to express your satis- 
faction. 

Southern Colonization Company 

422-434 Endicott Building, - - St. Paul, Minn. 

501-503 Atlantic National Bank Building, Jacksonville, Fla. 
234-235 Monadnock Building • - • - Chicago. III. 
719 New York Life Building, - - Kansas City, Mo. 

715 Traction Terminal Building, • - Indianapolis, Ind. 



OFFICERS 

Fredericic B. Lynch, PrtiiJeni Nicoll Halsey, Cm President 

Albert J. Nason, - Treasurer Theodore M. Knappen, Src'f. 



M 



i 



32 



THE 

H, W. Kl NQ8TON 

COMPANY 



OCAIflMIN* AMr> 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 












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